


Headcanon: Q keeps Bees

by Anyawen



Series: beekeeper q [2]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: 007 Fest 2020, Don't copy to another site, Gen, M survives skyfall, Pigeons, Retirement, beekeeper q, observant bond, team00
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:00:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25104334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anyawen/pseuds/Anyawen
Summary: Q keeps bees.
Relationships: Pre-00Q - Relationship
Series: beekeeper q [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810954
Comments: 8
Kudos: 69





	Headcanon: Q keeps Bees

**Author's Note:**

> A headcanon that was intended to be a quick, sweet one-shot, this idea has somehow managed to invade half a dozen of the fics I've written or am writing for 007 fest 2020 AND has gone back in time to co-opt one of my first Bond fics, '[[not] strictly official](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20853851).'

Q keeps bees. He’s had hives for years, tucked into the corner of the green space of his garden flat. With his promotion to Quartermaster, however, longer hours at work, and a strongly-worded suggestion that he relocate to a more secure residence, Q fears he’ll have to give up beekeeping. Before he is able to figure out what to do, one way or the other, the MI6 headquarters building at Vauxhall Cross is blown up, 007 returns from the dead, Raoul Silva is captured, escapes, and goes hunting for M. Q doesn’t go home to his garden flat and his bees and cats for a week. When he does - after braving a flight to Scotland with Moneypenny and Tanner to serve as reinforcements for Bond at Skyfall - he’s decided. It’s clear that he won’t have time to properly care for the bees.

He tells M this when he gives her a jar of honey the day her retirement —scheduled to begin three weeks later— is officially announced. M accepts the honey with brusque thanks and dismisses him, and Q begins making calls to other beekeepers about his hives. Before he has a chance to make further arrangements, M requests that he meet her on the roof of the new MI6 building. He finds her standing in front of a new pigeon loft not far from the roof access door. She tells him that every M is tasked with keeping a dozen homing pigeons as a last line of communication against catastrophic events. There are only three birds at the moment - recovered from the ruins of the Vauxhall building. Mallory will have to rebuild their numbers. She clearly expects Q to find the idea ludicrous, but he says he appreciates the redundancy. 

She leads him to the far side of the roof and suggests that it might be a good place to move his hives. Away from the birds, and away from the stairwell to the roof. Best to keep the bees away from the people who might come up here— no one is supposed to, but she says she knows better than to think the agents don't slip up whenever they want to.

Q is touched by her offer, but she scoffs at his sentiment. Happy employees are more efficient, she says. More reliable. Q has demonstrated that he’s able to handle the demands of his job, but an outlet of some sort that relieves stress can only benefit MI6. And so, Q moves his hives from his tiny back garden to the roof of the new MI6 headquarters. Occasionally he'll be on the roof when Mallory -M- is caring for the pigeons.

MI6 quickly learns to love Q’s stress-busting rooftop hobby, enjoying the honey harvest deposited by the jarful at tea and coffee stations throughout the building. 

It’s Bond who first realizes that when the dust settles after a mission gone wrong and an agent is lost, the place to find Q is on the roof with the hives, where he’s telling the bees about the loss. He’s always there to wrap an arm around the Quartermaster and escort back inside.


End file.
